AncientMariner

If the Earth is a bowling bowl that is offline going down the lane then this is not a job for the Buddha or Jesus or any other avatar. This is a job for Earl Anthony. Just kidding. Please don't get mad at me I'm only joking.

"Without too much effort we can place spin on the golf ball so it will come into correct alignment." Have you ever tried to hit a golf ball? It doesn't matter how much spin I put on it I still can't get it to come into correct alignment. LoL just kidding

It was only until I was fortunate to delve into Srila Prabhupada's books that I realized everything involved with Krishna is actual history. Growing up in the American school system and eating hamburgers most of the teachers I had thought of anything regarding Hinduism or Buddhism as being mythological in essence. You guys are right in avoiding that because it is mayavadi. For some reason I have been fortunate enough to have come to my senses even though everything I was ever taught would lead me in the opposite direction. People don't realize how important it is because if you get it wrong you will spend your whole life committing offenses against the Lord even unknowingly. I guess it just shows you how potent Srila Prabhupada's books are if you read them with an open mind.

Vaisnavas generally only accept knowledge as it is handed down from qualified authorities hence there is no need to speculate on the identity of the Kalki Avatar as he is clearly described in the revealed scriptures of Srimad Bhagavatam and his appearance is not for another 427,000 years or so. In the meantime just take a chill pill homie and if it pacifys you chant the names of Mohammed or whatever form of God you worship.

I'm Slim Shady yes I'm the real Shady all you other Slim Shady's are just imitating. Won't the real Slim Shady please stand up? LoL just kidding.

I guess you should rename me "the neophyte" then as long as you are willing to give up the name. Based on what you just presented I have to admit you are right. Sorry for being such an annoyance.

That makes sense. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me. I really appreciate it.

I was trying to explain to someone how the one Veda was divided into various branches and subbranches by Srila Vyasadeva for the benefit of the less intelligent people of the Kali-Yuga. He told me puranas are smritis and vedas are shrutis and there is a vast difference between the two and every Hindu knows this. Can anyone explain to me what smritis and shrutis are?

I really don't know what I can do about it. I live in America and we have plenty of nonesense going on here and I am bewildered what to do here even. I quit my job working at a convenience store because I was starting to actually get sick to my stomach when people would buy beer, cigarettes, and beef jerky. After studying Srila Prabhupada's books I realized I was implicating myself in karma by selling people these items. I chant the Hare Krishna mantra all the time but I can't even get my own father or any of my family members interested in Krishna so I guess I am a failure as a preacher. From a vedic point of view this world has become a complete nightmare and quite frankly I don't have any idea what to do except keep chanting Hare Krishna and wish for the best.

OK, thanks for answering my questions. I appreciate it.

So will you ever get to actually see Krishna or just the servant of Krishna? In the Vaikuntha planets do you actually get to meet Krishna and talk to Him or just His servant? When I say just His servant I don't mean to minimize His servant. I just thought I read in Srila Prabhupada's books that when you go back to Godhead you actually to get to meet Krishna.

I guess what I am getting at is in the material world we are being reformed and chastised for our insubordinance to Krishna and the spiritual master helps us correct that situation. Once that situation is corrected we essentially become playmates of Krishna don't we? So instead of thinking of Him as our spiritual master we think of Him as our best friend and we can't wait to get up in the morning to go play with Krishna.

This discussion kind of ties in to a question I wanted to ask and that is the spiritual master is the transparent medium to serving Krishna and ultimately it is the spiritual masters job to deliver Krishna to the devotee. So in the Vaikuntha planets do you still serve Krishna through the spiritual master or once you are cleaned of all material contamination do you ever serve Krishna directly? I realize either way you would be eternally indebted to your spiritual master but I was wondering if in the spiritual realm you serve Krishna directly?

I got my mind right boss. LOL just kidding

What we got here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. Well its the way he wants it, well he gets it and I don't like it anymore than you fellows. LOL JUST KIDDING

Man I must a struck a chord somewhere up in the office. No in all seriousness I am very glad that you have found a human representative of Krishna to guide you on your path to self realization. For me I don't trust humans, I like the book better. Admittedly that is probably my own failing so please ignore my faulty interpretations of the relationship between guru and disciple.

As a servant of the servant of Krishna wouldn't you have to have the authorization of Srila Prabhupada to engage in violence against anyone? I realize there are times when violence may be necessary but it still has to be authorized by Krishna so until the Kalki avatar appears or an authorized representative of Krishna gives you the ok your only duty as a servant of the servant of Krishna is to spread the glories of Krishna isn't it?

I thought I read that if the devotee can't find a suitable guru that Krishna acts as guru from within the heart of the devotee. I can't seem to find the quote though so I may be wrong. Can anyone verify this?

Very well said.

I agree but in my case I live in the middle of the desert in Eastern Washington and there isn't a Krishna Conscious person that I am aware of anywhere in sight. All I have is Srila Prabhupada's books so unless I am fortunate enough to come across an ascended spiritual master wandering around in the sagebrush the only way I can associate with a Krishna Conscious person is through Srila Prabhupada's books and in this forum because I think there are a lot of Krishna Conscious people in this chatroom. I am sorry, I am not trying to minimize the value of personal association but these are dangerous times we live in and it is hard to know who to trust and I know I can trust Srila Prabhupada.

But this whole thing is about eliminating the obstacles to self realization and as Srila Prabhupada said in the Purport to Canto 1. Ch. 2 Text 18 "Here is the remedy for eliminating all inauspicious things within the heart which are considered to be obstacles in the path of self realization. The remedy is the association of the Bhagavatas. There are two types of Bhagavatas, namely the book Bhagavata and the devotee Bhagavata. Both the Bhagavatas are competent remedies, and both of them or either of them can be good enough to eliminate the obstacles. A devotee Bhagavata is as good as the book Bhagavata because the devotee Bhagavata leads his life in terms of the book Bhagavata and the book Bhagavata is full of information about the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotees, who are also Bhagavatas. Bhagavata book and person are identical." So clearly from what I read you can eliminate the obstacles of self realization simply by coming into contact with the writings of a Bhagavata which clearly Srila Prabhupada's writings are. If you are associating with Srila Prabhupada's writings in a mood of devotion it is no different than associating with him personally because Bhagavata book and person are identical. I realize people tend to overcomplicate this stuff because people are trying to raise some people to the level of devotion that Srila Prabhupada was at but its really not that complicated.

I do find it bizarre when I see Christians handing out hamburgers or even eating them. It just doesn't seem right to me but it is probably due to my own personal bias against Christianity as a result of growing up in a Mormon community where I was rejected but that rejection was probably a blessing because that rejection is what caused me to search out Krishna Consciousness.

I do find it bizarre when I see Christians handing out hamburgers or even eating them. It just doesn't seem right to me but it is probably due to my own personal bias against Christianity as a result of growing up in a Mormon community where I was rejected but that rejection was probably a blessing because that rejection is what caused me to search out Krishna Consciousness.

I consider my trailer to be a temple to Krishna. It's the best I can do because around here if you try to build anything elaborate you have all sorts of inspectors and county agents telling you what you can and can't do with your own property or in this case with my Dad's property. So far Krishna has protected me and my temple to Krishna from the meat-eaters that are running around in hordes.

but I was just reading a book by Joseph Campbell called "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and He mentioned the tale of an ancient Hindu warrior-king named Muchukunda. Its in a chapter about the hero-quest being fulfilled but the hero refusing to return and play the part of the renewer of civilization. "When the hero-quest has been accomplished, through penetration fo the source, or through the grace of some male or female, human or animal, personification, the adventurer still must return with his life-transmuting trophy. The full round, the norm of the monomyth, requires that the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom, the Golden Fleece, or his sleeping princess, back into the kingdom of humanity, where the boon may rebound to the renewing of the community, the nation, the planet, or the ten thousand worlds. "But the responsibility has been frequently refused. Even the Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have passed away while in supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence forever in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being." "A moving tale is told of an ancient Hindu warrior-king named Muchukunda. He was born from his father's left side, the father having swallowed by mistake a fertility potion that the Brahmins had prepared for his wife; and in keeping with the promising symbolism of this miracle, the motherless marvel, fruit of the male womb, grew to be such a king among kings that when the gods, at one period, were suffering defeat in the perpetual contest with the demons, they called upon him for help. He assisted them to a mighty victory, and they, in their divine pleasure, granted him the realization of his highest wish. But what should such a king, himself almost omnipotent, desire? What greatest boon of boons could be conceived of by such a master among men? King Muchukunda, so runs the story, was very tired after his battle: all he asked was that he might be granted a sleep without end, and that any person chancing to arouse him should be burned to a crisp by the first glance of his eye." "The boon was bestowed. In a cavern chamber, deep within the womb of a mountain, King Muchukunda retired to sleep, and there slumbered through the revolving eons. Individuals, peoples, civilizations, world ages, came into being out of the void and dropped back into it again, while the old king, in his state of sub-conscious bliss, endured. Timeless as the Freudian unconscious beneath the dramatic time world of our fluctuating ego-experience, that old mountain man, the drinker of deep sleep, lived on and on." "His awakening came-but with a surprising turn that throws into new perspective the whole problem of the hero-circuit, as well as the mystery of a mighty king's request for sleep as the highest conceivable boon." "Vishnu, the Lord of the World, had become incarnate in the person of a beautiful youth named Krishna, who, having saved the land of India from a tyrannical race of demons, had assumed the throne. And he had been ruling in Utopian peace, when a horde of barbarians suddenly invaded from the northwest. Krishna the king went against them, but, in keeping with his divine nature, won the victory playfully, by a simple ruse. Unarmed and garlanded with lotuses, he came out of his stronghold and tempted the enemy king to pursue and catch him, then dodged into a cave. When the barbarian followed, he discovered someone lying there in the chamber asleep." ""Oh!" thought he. "So he has lured me here and now feigns to be a harmless sleeper." "He kicked the figure lying on the ground before him, and it stirred. It was King Muchukunda. The figure rose and the eyes that had been closed for unnumbered cycles of creation, world history, and dissolution, opened slowly to the light. The first glance that went forth struck the enemy king, who burst into a torch of flame and was reduced immediately to a smoking heap of ash. Muchukunda turned, and the second glance struck the garlanded beautiful youth, whom the awakened old king straightway recognized by his radiance as an incarnation of God. And Muchukunda bowed before his Savior with the following prayer: "My Lord God! When I lived and wrought as a man, I lived and wrought-straying restlessly; through many lives, birth after birth, I sought and suffered, nowhere knowing cease or rest. Distress I mistook for joy. Mirages appearing over the desert I mistook for refreshing waters. Delights I grasped, and what I obtained was misery. Kingly power and earthly possession, riches and might, friends and sons, wife and followers, everything that lures the senses: I wanted them all, because I believed that these would bring me beatitude. But the moment anything was mine it changed its nature, and became a burning fire. "Then I found my way into the company of the gods, and they welcomed me as a companion. But where, still, surcease? Where rest? The creatures of this world, gods included, all are tricked, my Lord God, by your playful ruses; that is why the continue in their futile round of birth, life agony, old age, and death. Between lives, they confront the lord of the dead and are forced to endure hells of every degree of pitiless pain. And it all comes from you!" "My Lord God, deluded by your playful ruses, I too was a prey of the world, wandering in a labyrinth of error, netted in the meshes of ego-consciousness. Now, therefore, I take refuge in your Presence-the boundless, the adorable- desiring only freedom from it all." "When Muchukunda stepped from his cave, he saw that men, since his departure, had become reduced in stature. He was a giant amongst them. And so he departed from them again, retreated to the highest mountains, and there dedicated himself to the ascetic practices that should finally release him form his last attachment to the forms of being." "Muchukunda, in other words, instead of returning, decided to retreat one degree still further from the world. And who shall say that his decision was altogether without reason?"